{"id":31598,"date":"2022-09-10T15:36:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/the-lie-about-god-half-your-church-believes\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:36:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:36:41","slug":"the-lie-about-god-half-your-church-believes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/the-lie-about-god-half-your-church-believes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lie About God Half Your Church Believes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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David Clode photo – Unsplash<\/div>\n

By Jared C. Wilson<\/em><\/p>\n

According to Barna research, 82% of Americans believe that \u201cGod helps those who help themselves\u201d is a Bible verse.<\/p>\n

You may suggest this only confirms the biblical illiteracy of our post-Christian nation. But it doesn\u2019t explain the reality that more than half of practicing Christians thought the same.<\/p>\n

(It\u2019s not a Bible verse, by the way.)<\/p>\n

But maybe one of the reasons Christians project this idea onto the Bible is because it sounds true to our fleshly hearts.<\/p>\n

The truth is that \u201cGod helps those who help themselves\u201d is essentially a legalistic ethos. The worldview this lie represents is antithetical to the grace that makes Christianity unique and saving.<\/p>\n

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The truth is that \u201cGod helps those who help themselves\u201d is essentially a legalistic ethos. The worldview this lie represents is antithetical to the grace that makes Christianity unique and saving. \u2014 @jaredcwilson Click To Tweet <\/p>\n

The very heart of true Christianity is opposed to the idea that God helps those who help themselves.<\/p>\n

This slogan\u2019s nod to God is a subterfuge from Satan. He would prefer if we never thought of God at all, but the next best thing is to think wrong thoughts about Him, thoughts that are not worthy of Him.<\/p>\n

If our enemy cannot get us off the subject of salvation entirely, he will get us onto it in the wrong ways\u2014namely, by introducing even a small measure of works into the salvation equation.<\/p>\n

This lie has always been effective with religious people, for reasons that include a connection to the very first lie in the Garden of Eden. Satan desperately wants us to add a \u201cplus\u201d to the gospel of grace, because that detracts from Christ and his sufficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod helps those who help themselves\u201d sounds stupid to the theology of my head, but it sounds true to the wonky theology of my flesh. When I am down in the spiritual doldrums, I\u2019m tempted to believe it.<\/p>\n

I am afraid that God doesn\u2019t, won\u2019t, can\u2019t<\/em> love me. That my approval before him is based on my religious output, and of course, I am fully aware that I can never do enough.<\/p>\n

Then I\u2019m afraid that by thinking such unbiblical thoughts, I\u2019ve really messed up, and I might not even be a Christian at all.<\/p>\n

You would think grace would be so appealing. The very idea that despite our inability to measure up to God\u2019s glory, he freely and lovingly lavishes grace on us as a gift is refreshing and wonderful.<\/p>\n

We cannot get this message anywhere else. No other religion or philosophy offering fulfillment, beauty, and enlightenment teaches that those things are given unilaterally by the God of grace. How amazing is that?<\/p>\n

No other religion or philosophy offering fulfillment, beauty, and enlightenment teaches that those things are given unilaterally by the God of grace. \u2014 @jaredcwilson Click To Tweet <\/p>\n

And yet if this truth is really that appealing, more people would jump at the opportunity to believe it, wouldn\u2019t they? But we suspect it\u2019s not true. Even those of us who believe it\u2019s true struggle to live out that belief.<\/p>\n

Our flesh yearns for works, for credit.<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s letter to the Galatians may be the best short treatment on the radical intrusion of grace into the God-dishonoring world of legalistic religion.<\/p>\n

The apostle is astounded that those who know about the free grace given in the good news of Jesus would abandon it. \u201cWhy in the world would you return to the slavery of works righteousness?\u201d he wants to know (1:6; 5:1).<\/p>\n

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The Galatian church had become infiltrated by false teachers referred to as \u201cJudaizers.\u201d They were arguing that Christianity is made up of grace plus<\/em> works\u2014in this case, the works of the Jewish ceremonial law, namely circumcision and the dietary restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, yes, grace,\u201d the Judaizers said, \u201cbut also you need to be extra religious. That is how you earn approval with God and stay united to Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the \u201cplausible arguments\u201d (Col. 2:4) of the Judaizers, the devil tempted many professing believers to make a shipwreck of their faith.<\/p>\n

While Paul is astonished by the Galatians\u2019 preference for works righteousness over the free gift of Christ\u2019s righteousness, he knows that it is a tempting lure.<\/p>\n

He knows it \u201cmakes sense.\u201d And he knows it crouches at the door of every human heart, that no person is immune to its allure.<\/p>\n

In Galatians 6:15, Paul even warns the ones restoring those who\u2019ve fallen prey to the heresy to watch out themselves, so they won\u2019t also be tempted into it.<\/p>\n

It seems odd to think that if you were teaching grace to legalists, you\u2019d be tempted to become a legalist yourself, but I am here to tell you it is a very real danger.<\/p>\n

Once I was giving a guest lecture in a college classroom on gospel-centered ministry. During the Q&A, a student asked me one of the most profound and penetrating questions I\u2019ve ever received in such an environment.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cI just want to know one thing: Do you preach the gospel to yourself as well as you do to us?\u201d<\/p>\n

I stopped for a second, weighing my options. My approval-meter kicked in, and I wanted to be seen as impressive. But I realized the truth might be more helpful to him\u2014and to me.<\/p>\n

I replied, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t. I am much better at reminding others of grace than resting in it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many Christian preachers and teachers, there is a real danger of giving grace to themselves while withholding it from others. \u2014 @jaredcwilson Click To Tweet <\/p>\n

For one thing, we can become inordinately proud of being \u201cgrace people.\u201d And when we do that, we\u2019ve instantly begun eroding our own credibility, perhaps not before others but certainly within our own hearts.<\/p>\n

For many Christian preachers and teachers, there is a real danger of giving grace to themselves while withholding it from others.<\/p>\n

All believers are in great danger of this disobedience to the Great Commandment. But for many there is also danger in preaching with our mouths what we don\u2019t believe in our hearts.<\/p>\n

And yet there is grace even for that. Amazing. We find it in the true gospel of God saving those who cannot, despite their best intentions and efforts, help themselves.<\/p>\n

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Jared C. Wilson<\/h2>\n

@JaredCWilson<\/p>\n

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Jared is author in residence of Midwestern Seminary, assistant professor of pastoral ministry at Spurgeon College, general editor of For the Church, and director of the Pastoral Training Center at Liberty Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n